Jacques Villeneuve, Formula 1 world champion in 1997 and winner of the Indianapolis 500, was forced to change the engine before the Daytona 500.
Villeneuve earned a place on the starting grid during the official qualifying held last Wednesday. Then, however, on Thursday, Villeneuve had an engine problem before his Duel race on Thursday and was thus forced to retire after 34 laps.
His team then discovered a more serious engine problem as Jacques was taking part in final testing ahead of yesterday’s Daytona 500.
When asked by Fox Sports related to the engine problems he had in recent days, Villeneuve replied: “Well, at least we solved the problem on Thursday, but then we discovered this morning that we had lost a valve. For this we were forced to change the engine”.
“Unfortunately this inconvenience did not allow me to do the number of laps I would have liked to do. I wanted to try the pit lane entry, but also the exit. The 500 Miglia, however, will allow you to learn everything in the race, because it is a lot long “.
Villeneuve, over the last few years, has raced in the NASCAR Euro Series, winning in Vallelunga, Italy. Thanks to stock car racing, he admits that his career has found new life.
“When I was in F1 I didn’t think I would be able to drive anything else,” added Villeneuve. “I was so focused and prepared for those kinds of cars that I didn’t think I was going to make it. Then when I got behind the wheel of a NASCAR I realized I could have a lot of fun. At that point I decided to try different types of cars.”
“The funniest thing I did was NASCAR. Not qualifying, because it’s hard to beat the speeds you get in F1, but racing wheel to wheel or mudguard to mudguard is nice. It’s one of the very beautiful aspects of racing. series”.
